Washington is currently gripped with the quadrennial fever over who will fill Cabinet posts and White House offices in a new administration. Names and guessing games abound. Kerry for Secretary of State. Gates staying at Defense? Colin Powell to head the Department of Education?

But President-elect Obama will have many, many other impoprtant jobs to fill beyond the Cabinet and the West Wing, not least of them a new U.S. ambassador to Baghdad to replace current ambo Ryan Crocker, who will be retiring early in the new year. For Obama, who has pledged to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, by summer 2010, it's an important and delicate choice.

One candidate to replace Crocker, N&S hears from a couple of sources, is Ambassador Frank Ricciardone, who's served as U.S. envoy to Egypt and the Philippines. Ricciardone, who is highly regarded in many quarters, also has extensive experience with Iraq. Not the least of that was in 1999 to 2001, when he served as special coordinator for the Transition of Iraq. In that pre-Iraq invasion role, much of his job was to deal with--and try to help unify--the fractious anti-Saddam Hussein opposition. Ricciardone earned the wrath of the right wing for being skeptical of Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi, whose Iraqi National Congress provided bogus intelligence on Saddam's supposed WMD and terrorist ties that helped fuel the Iraq War.

Unclear at this point who else, if anyone, is in the running for the Baghdad post.

With the election results in, the Pentagon has begun preparations for its first war-time transition since Vietnam. There is a lot to talk about of course – two wars, an exhausted ground force, the expansion of the Army and Marines, the budget and on and on. But before any of that can begin, the Obama defense transition team needs an office. And believe or not, we got a tour today of dividers, empty desks and shutdown computers. It was like touring a Dilbert cartoon before the characters had been drawn in.

The three offices are just down the hall from the Secretary of Defense and his staff. And the Pentagon has set aside 27 desks for the Obama staff. It sounds like a lot until you think about what they have to do. They will be briefed on all the major Defense issues. They will go over the budget; meet the Department’s leadership; and whittle down who they would like to lead the myriad of departments around the building.

It appears that as soon as the results came in, someone ran to Staples because many of the desks had highlighters, rules, folders, scissors and pens awaiting the desk’s soon-to-occupant.

The Defense Department says this is all part of its effort to lead a smooth transition.

In light of the litany of ‘W’ keys swiped off White House computers eight years ago, I took photos of some of the keyboards in the Pentagon transition office. And as you can see (if you click on the last photo), the ‘O’ key is still on the keyboard. For now. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, who led the tour, said anything less would be unprofessional and go against the work ethic of the Department.

CBS’s 60 Minutes featured a story last night about reservists who find it increasingly difficult to hold on to their everyday jobs after serving multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.  While many employers want to support the troops the first time around, they are less enthusiastic after the second or third tour, according to the story, even though the Soldiers & Sailors Civil Relief Act (SSCRA) protects reservists’ jobs no matter how many tours they do.  Indeed, they are supposed to come back at the same pay. The companies argue they are incurring high costs to replace employees – even temporarily – during an economic downtown. At companies where the employee is not replaced, business suffers when someone is gone month after month, they said. So, some openly refuse to hire reservists. 

The reservists said they don’t know where to turn. So Thomas Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reservist affairs, told reservists “call my office. Call me personally.” He then gave out his number, 703.697.6631, on the air.

“I invite people if they have a problem, tell me,” Hall told reporter Lesley Stahl.

Today, I decided to call the number and see what kind of response reservists would get from Hall’s office. I found LTC Matthew Leonard, who has been taking many of the calls.  LTC Leonard could not have been friendlier, I am happy to report. He said that by noon he had received roughly 115 calls. But only about 15 percent were actually reservists who had an issue with an employer and needed help. The rest, Leonard said, were people hanging up (apparently only calling to see if the number worked), people with concerns not even remotely related to the military, and former servicemen convinced a 50-year-old injury from the Korean War was the reason behind the current ailments.

“A lot of times, they just want to bend your ear,” Leonard said.

My fellow N&Ser, Warren Strobel said Leonard’s experience reminded him of when then Secretary of State James Baker was testifying about Middle East peace at a particularly tense moment. Frustrated, he said that if the Israelis and Palestinians want to talk, they should call. He then shouted out 456.1414, the White House switchboard number (which still works by the way). He later had to buy the receptionists flowers after a flood of phone calls, none from Israelis or Palestinians offering to broker a peace deal.

As it turns out, reservists who need help shouldn’t call Secretary Hall, but log onto this website. The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is designed to address these kinds of issues, Leonard told me. So here is the link. If you are a reservist and don’t get the answers you want, could you let me know? My number is 202.383.6186. And I too want to hear from you.